The 41 Best Abzan Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on January 4, 2026

Eerie Ultimatum | Illustration by Jason A. Engle

Historically, Abzan () cards lacked a clear identity. Many of them functioned mainly as hatebears, while others were simply strong standalone cards, like Siege Rhino. Their effects felt scattered, with no consistent theme to tie them together.

Recently, Wizards has printed more Abzan cards with a shared game plan in mind, and today, we look at those cards to rank the best options in the color combination.

Intrigued? Let’s dive in!

What Are Abzan Cards in MTG?

Abzan Ascendancy | Illustration by Mark Winters

Abzan cards have an exact color identity of white, black, and green (). These can be 3-color cards, mono-colored cards with additional colored symbols in their rules text, or lands with all three mana symbols present. I won’t be adding lands to this list unless they have added utility beyond tapping for mana, since we also have a comprehensive breakdown of all Abzan lands in Magic.

There was a brief period of time when this color trio was nicknamed “Necra” (Necravolver), and after that it was affectionately called Junk (as in: Jund, but replacing red with white makes it bad). Khans of Tarkir saved us from all that nonsense and gave us the definitive Abzan name.

That said, Tarkir: Dragonstorm gave us a large number of Abzan cards, with a notable subset that leans heavily into toughness-matters strategies. This finally gives Abzan a clear and cohesive identity, especially through the cards released in the Commander products.

Honorable Mentions

There are a few powerful Abzan cards I won’t include in the main rankings because they’re exclusive to Arena, but they’re still worth calling out. Cards like Call the Crash offer explosive value by putting multiple Siege Rhinos directly onto the battlefield. Not just vanilla tokens, but actual cards!

Hamza, Might of the Yathan leans heavily into face-down and toughness-based synergies. It pairs extremely well with Threats Around Every Corner to turn manifested creatures into ramp and board presence at the same time, which creates a unique and surprisingly powerful engine that only exists in digital play.

#41. Abzan Devotee

Abzan Devotee is a quiet but flexible role-player for Abzan decks that care about value and recursion. It works as early fixing by turning spare mana into any Abzan color, which helps to smooth out slower, 3-color starts. Later in the game, it refuses to stay down thanks to the built-in graveyard recursion, so it’s a solid fit for sacrifice or grindy midrange shells.

#40. Kin-Tree Severance

Clean, efficient interaction is always welcome, and Kin-Tree Severance fills that role nicely. Exiling larger permanents keeps problematic threats off the board, especially against midrange and ramp decks. The hybrid cost makes it flexible in Abzan mana bases, and it pairs well with proactive strategies that just need a reliable answer to clear the way for attackers or to protect a board advantage.

#39. Skirmish Rhino

Sometimes simple is best, and Skirmish Rhino delivers exactly that. A solid body with trample plus a life swing on entry makes it perfect for aggressive midrange strategies. It fits well into Abzan beatdown plans that want to apply early pressure while padding life totals, especially alongside blink effects like Ephemerate or recursion engines that reuse enters triggers for steady advantage.

#38. Overgrown Estate

Overgrown Estate is an intriguing, early-day Abzan card. Only problem is I can’t see a reason to run this enchantment if you have access to Zuran Orb. Maybe if you’re in these colors and you want maximum redundancy for some Titania, Protector of Argoth combo?

#37. Teneb, the Harvester

Honestly, Teneb, the Harvester’s never been all that good, certainly not today. But we’re shafted on overall Abzan cards, so I’ll shout out this Primeval dragon that I know has its fans.

#36. Abzan Charm

The removal mode on Abzan Charm mimics some thoughts I'll have on Mythos of Nethroi later on. Three mana for a hard-to-cast Night's Whisper or a few +1/+1 counters ain’t doing it, but as we know, the strength of these charms is their modality and ability to adapt to the way the game’s developed. I’d want the +1/+1 counters to really matter for my deck before I considered this.

#35. Severance Priest

This creature acts as a potent disruption tool that allows you to peek at an opponent's hand and exile a nonland card upon entering the battlefield. While Severance Priest gives the opponent a spirit token when it leaves play, the immediate hand-hate is invaluable for “hatebear” strategies.

#34. Daghatar the Adamant

I used to play with someone regularly who ran Daghatar the Adamant as their Abzan commander. They never won, but they did cool things. The cute play is to steal counters from opposing creatures, which people don’t know you can do until you say you’re doing it.

#33. Yathan Roadwatcher

Ideally suited for graveyard recursion decks, this creature offers immediate value by milling cards and returning a small creature to the battlefield if you cast it. Yathan Roadwatcher fits well into aristocrats or toolbox strategies where sacrificing and recurring low-cost creatures is key. It can pick up small utility creatures like Sakura-Tribe Elder or Spore Frog while it fills your graveyard for other synergies.

#32. Crime / Punishment

Modality’s nice, but when it comes to actually selecting a mode on Crime / Punishment, you’re likely to be disappointed. The hope is to snag something colossal with Crime, with Punishment as an over-costed backup board wipe.

#31. Siege Rhino

Oh, lookie lookie, the old big baddie of Standard doesn’t get the job done anymore? This thing used to be the talk of the town. “Look how broken it is, this is pique power creep!” The 2020s say hold my beer.

Seriously, does Siege Rhino have a home anywhere anymore? It’s never been much of a Commander card, it’s been woefully power crept out of any real Constructed format, and my highly anticipated “Oops All Rhinos” format never really took off. I mean, non-rares like Vampire Sovereign are at least comparable. Rest easy big rhino, you had your run.

#30. Ready / Willing

The overall cost on Ready / Willing is super bloated, whether you fuse it or just cast one half of this split card. But cards that see virtually no play, like this one, get brownie points because no one will ever play around them. If someone casts this against me mid-combat, not only won’t I be Ready, I also won’t be Willing to accept the consequences.

#29. Karador, Ghost Chieftain

Am I crazy, or was Karador, Ghost Chieftain just never all that impressive? I always used to hear people say stuff like “oh, we’re playing low-power? Guess I won’t bring out my Karador deck!” And then they play it anyway and fold to a Bojuka Bog.

Maybe it was the introduction of Meren of Clan Nel Toth and later reanimation commanders that bumped it off the radar, but I was never really in tune with calling Karador a good Abzan commander.

#28. Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan

Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan plays a very different role because it acts as an aggressive engine for aristocrats and counter-based strategies. With trample and a trigger that sacrifices a nonland permanent to grow your entire board, it can snowball games quickly. Every attack or entry pushes your creatures further out of reach. Cheap fodder and value artifacts like Ichor Wellspring make it easy to fuel this effect without falling behind.

#27. Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant

Cute Lord of the Rings flavor, but not much else going on for Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant. Sure, it’s pretty cool if you get to “do the thing”, but in order to reach 100+ life you need to already be doing the types of lifegain things you’d be winning with by using some other combinations of cards. I’m not gonna knock you for making this halfling rogue your wincon, but there are easier ways to go about it.

#26. Revival of the Ancestors

Token and go-wide strategies get a strong payoff with Revival of the Ancestors. It immediately builds a board with spirit tokens, enhances creatures with counters, then finishes with a powerful trample and lifelink swing. This saga shines next to anthem effects like Intangible Virtue or counter synergies like Conclave Mentor, which makes it a flexible finisher for creature-dense Abzan decks.

#25. Stronghold Arena

Hard to justify playing Stronghold Arena when you could just be playing the Phyrexian Arena it’s based on instead. Budget concerns, maybe? The kicker costs offset the life loss a little bit, but this sort of Dark Confidant style of card advantage tends not to work out well in Commander unless you’re gaining tons of life or manipulating your library somehow. And there’s no guarantee you’re connecting in combat to trigger this black enchantment, either (it can trigger once per opponent, though!).

#24. Perennation

Perennation is a powerful safety net for Abzan graveyard decks. Bringing any permanent back from the graveyard is already strong, but adding both hexproof and indestructible counters turns that permanent into a long-term problem for your opponents. It’s ideal for rebuilding after board wipes or protecting a key engine piece, but it works best when your deck is already feeding the graveyard through self-mill or sacrifice effects like Greater Good.

#23. Mythos of Nethroi

Removal’s just really strong these days, so 3-mana 1-for-1 spot removal doesn’t get me sweating. I like this instant as a potential alternative to Beast Within in metas where you don’t need to destroy lands that often. Mythos of Nethroi has sweet art, too.

#22. Doran, the Siege Tower

Doran, the Siege Tower is a well-disguised aggro commander. It’s essentially a 3-mana 5/5 that turns all your dumb Nyx-Fleece Rams and Yoked Oxen into overstatted early-game creatures. The deck dies if Doran dies, and it doesn’t work with defenders as well as something like Arcades, the Strategist. Still, it gives you a place to play Tasseled Dromedary, which maybe isn’t saying a lot.

The biggest nail in the coffin for Doran was the printing of Felothar the Steadfast, which is better in almost every way.

#21. Anafenza, the Foremost

Anafenza, the Foremost used to be more appealing as a +1/+1 counter commander before the card pool broadened. Now it just feels like it’s missing too much utility to really want it in the command zone. It can still beat down effectively, but the stipulation of targeting a tapped creature has always been annoying. It’s also strange that the graveyard hate ability doesn’t stop tokens from dying, so it’s not a complete graveyard hoser either.

#20. Cease / Desist

Desist can be devastating against different types of decks, and Cease always gives you the cantrip buyout mode, so it’s never a dead card. The overall Cease // Desist package gives you artifact hate, enchantment hate, and graveyard hate all on one card, three essentials you should be packing in every Commander deck.

#19. Vishgraz, the Doomhive

Vishgraz, the Doomhive is good if you’re playing poison and pretty useless anywhere else. I suppose there might be a go-wide deck out there that just appreciates this Phyrexian insect being four bodies in one, but I’m assuming it’s toxic or bust. Also awkward that it loses a huge stat-boost if you kill a single poisoned opponent, so you’re working really hard to defeat all three opponents at once, something poison decks have traditionally struggled doing.

#18. Abzan Ascendancy

This is a really cool effect that’s bogged down by being a 3-color card. That means you just don’t see it very often, though Abzan Ascendancy’s a nice upgrade over cards like Golgari Germination or Blight Mound. Again, I want the counters to really matter, though many Abzan commanders do care about +1/+1 counters.

#17. Colfenor, the Last Yew

We’ve seen this ability repurposed a few times for different categories of cards (Scrap Trawler, Jackdaw Savior), but Colfenor, the Last Yew is just too expensive for me to get excited by it. Granted, these types of abilities open up infinite loop possibilities, so I’m never going to discount this Abzan treefolk shaman completely.

#16. Kathril, Aspect Warper

Keyword counters are such a pain to track in physical Magic. But jump that hurdle (or play online), and you’ve got a pretty interesting Abzan commander in Kathril, Aspect Warper. I’m a big fan of legends that give a home to cards that otherwise wouldn’t have one, in this case keyword creatures like Bassara Tower Archer and Sunblade Angel.

#15. Narci, Fable Singer

More saga commanders, please! Sagas are the best thing to come out of Magic since flashback, and I love that they’re really digging into what a saga Commander deck can look like. Narci, Fable Singer is a little more open-ended than that, since you draw off sacrificing any type of enchantment, but you’re clearly incentivized to go in on sagas and lore counter manipulation.

#14. Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa

The good Abzan toxic commander. The reward on Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa is a ton of card advantage from your opponents’ decks. I guess that makes this a bit of a poison/theft commander hybrid? It’s still locked to a hyper-specific archetype and still has that issue of not wanting to knock a player out with poison too early, lest you give up some of your precious card advantage.

#13. Death’s Oasis

Much like Abzan Ascendancy, I assume Death's Oasis would see more play if it weren’t tied to an unpopular color trio. The effect is pretty useful, tying self-mill and creature recursion together, and even spotting you some lifegain in a pinch. That’s something you’d spring on in a Sultai () deck, but Abzan not so much. Aristocrats decks can play it, but they also have infinite enablers without it.

#12. Betor, Kin to All

Betor, Kin to All is the ultimate reward for committing to a toughness-heavy battlefield. This 5/7 flier scales dramatically as your total toughness increases, starting with card draw and ending with untaps and massive life loss for your opponents. It feels tailormade as a finisher for Abzan toughness decks that closes games once your board is established. Effects like Unnatural Growth or Wound Reflection can turn its late-game triggers into outright game-enders.

#11. Myrkul, Lord of Bones

Good god.

The Battle for Baldur’s Gate gods have this finnicky indestructible ability that’s not reliable enough to count on, but it makes a 7-mana commander like Myrkul, Lord of Bones much safer to play. Myrkul has a unique death trigger that can play in both aristocrat and enchantress spaces, or you can go the Devoted Druid combo route and I’ll just play on my phone while you do your thing.

#10. Nethroi, Apex of Death

Nethroi, Apex of Death has a very cool mutate ability that fits well with aristocrats strategies or pays you off for doubling down on mutate creatures. I also just like when my commander has lifelink; it seems that’s more relevant than ever these days.

A fun well-known combo with Nethroi, Apex of Death is running Scourge of the Skyclaves in your deck. This creature can have negative power in the graveyard, thus increasing the number of creatures you can bring back with the mutate trigger.

#9. Kethis, the Hidden Hand

I can see both your hands, they’re right there on the table. Unless….

I’m pretty sure we’re at the point where you can just craft a Kethis, the Hidden Hand deck with nothing but legendary cards, right? What you do with that is up to you. Maybe you just want reassurances in the command zone. Maybe you’re into Mindslaver locks. I’m not here to judge.

#8. Ghave, Guru of Spores

My only issue with Ghave is that no one ever seems to do anything interesting with this fungus shaman. It’s just a catalyst for infinite combos, and while that’s fine, it leaves me unexcited. If you’re an infinite combo enthusiast, Ghave, Guru of Spores gives you plenty of openings with +1/+1 counters and tokens.

#7. Tayam, Luminous Enigma

I like that “Luminous Enigma” basically translates to “strange shiny thing”.

It’s my understanding that Tayam, Luminous Enigma has a cEDH pedigree, but it’s still a cool recursive engine for us common folk. It’s fun to try and combine this Abzan nightmare with cards that use negative counters as a drawback, such as finality counters and stun counters.

#6. Betor, Ancestor’s Voice

Betor, Ancestor's Voice leans into a more nuanced Abzan plan built around life total manipulation. As a flying, lifelink 3/5, it rewards gaining and losing life by handing out +1/+1 counters or reanimating creatures from your graveyard. The play pattern encourages careful balancing rather than reckless swings. Cards like Doom Whisperer help to control life loss, while Children of Korlis lets you swing the numbers back in your favor at just the right moment.

#5. Felothar the Steadfast

Felothar the Steadfast is the backbone of Abzan toughness decks, turning defense into offense in a very real way. This card really shines with its sacrifice ability because it lets you cash in a creature to draw cards equal to its toughness. That kind of card advantage adds up fast. It naturally pairs with effects like Assault Formation and Doran, the Siege Tower to push the strategy even further.

#4. Thalia and The Gitrog Monster

Tossing a stax effect on a card advantage engine is already something, but they had the audacity to make Thalia and The Gitrog Monster one of those stupid deathtouch–first strike roadblocks that are virtually impossible to deal with in combat.

I like that T&TGM doesn’t point you in any one particular direction, leaving some creativity to the deck designer.

#3. Anikthea, Hand of Erebos

One of Magic's best enchantment commanders, Anikthea, Hand of Erebos always seems to impress. This enchantress/reanimator mash-up feels wholly unique and works like a charm, comboing super hard with token-doubling enchantments like Anointed Procession and Song of the Worldsoul. It even has random zombie synergies with cards like Liliana's Mastery.

#2. The Necrobloom

The Necrobloom pushed into the upper echelons of casual commanders within a year of being printed. Field of the Dead isn’t a reasonable card, and making it a legendary creature gives it some vulnerabilities, but also makes it a much more consistent and reliable build around. Dredge is also basically never safe to print on a card.

#1. Eerie Ultimatum

I’ll have one of everything please.

Eerie Ultimatum just puts your whole graveyard on the battlefield in a singleton format. I don’t even find the ultimatums that hard to cast in 3-color decks, since fixing tends to be good these days. So yeah, Eerie’s restricted to a small subset of decks, but this is wild mass reanimation for these colors, and it’s mostly strategy-agnostic unless you’re running one of those super-popular Abzan spellslinger decks.

Best Abzan Payoffs

Abzan in Khans of Tarkir was positioned around the outlast mechanic, and +1/+1 counters in a broader sense. That makes it a good home for counter-enhancing effects like Hardened Scales and Kami of Whispered Hopes. This also makes some of the hallmark Abzan cards like Abzan Ascendancy and Armament Dragon more desirable.

Abzan also has a little bit of a self-mill and recursion identity, but it feels like a worse version of Sultai in this regard. Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Colfenor, the Last Yew, and Eerie Ultimatum all play around in this space.

What Is Abzan Good at in MTG?

Abzan’s main appeal is +1/+1 counters, as evidenced by early commanders like Anafenza, the Foremost and Daghatar the Adamant. There aren’t actually that many great +1/+1 counter cards with Abzan colors, though, so it relies pretty heavily on 1- and 2-color cards to flesh out this part of its identity.

Abzan also incorporates black-white’s aristocrat strategies fairly well. There are payoffs for sacrificing permanents as well as recursive commanders like Nethroi, Apex of Death, Myrkul, Lord of Bones, and Karador, Ghost Chieftain.

A few off-shoot archetypes for Abzan include lifegain (Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant), poison (Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa and Vishgraz, the Doomhive), and enchantress (Anikthea, Hand of Erebos and Narci, Fable Singer), but none of these are super heavily supported by the 3-color Abzan cards.

Toughness-matters cards like Felothar the Steadfast and Betor, Kin to All act as powerful engines that turn otherwise defensive cards like Overgrown Battlement and Sylvan Caryatid into real threats rather than simple roadblocks.

Wrap Up

Tayam, Luminous Enigma | Illustration by Sam Burley

With just a few more cards that support the toughness-matters archetype, players can now mix classic Abzan staples with newly printed cards to create decks that feel more cohesive, flavorful, and fun to play.

Abzan not your thing? You can check out our rankings of cards in the other color trios here:

• Bant cards
• Jeskai cards
• Mardu cards
• Temur cards
• Sultai cards
• Esper cards
• Naya cards
• Grixis cards
• Jund cards

What do you think? Would you like to see more of this design space explored in future sets? Let us know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord. If you enjoyed the content, be sure to follow us on social media so you never miss an update.

Take care, and see you next time!